Key to the Flame's Heart
by adventuregirl101
Summary: Lucy tried publishing a novel but failed because it was too amateur. She asks Levy for advice and is given the idea to write about her adventures on jobs with Natsu and everyone as characters in her story. She receives fanletters of people who read her book and gets stuck on some that state her character and Natsu's character like each other. A Nalu fanfic (T for language)
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own Fairy Tail (You can't trust me with that kind of stuff because I'll just make it all about romance (-_-;)**

* * *

3 AM. Lucy sat at her desk tapping her quill against her cheek as she thought about what to write. She had decided that she wanted to start a new novel since her last one didn't turn out as well as she had wished. The plot and wording was great but when she brought it down to get published, it didn't make the cut. The publisher was "only accepting experienced authors and not amateurs." His words exactly. The word "amateur" would echo in her head repeatedly every time she came up with a new plot, sticking to the back of her mind making her hate it more and more until she decides to trash the idea. Normally she would get right back to work with making a new novel after failing, but for some reason she was considering she should stop writing. It wasn't a definite thought, but just a whisper every now and then when she would put together all of her failures. Maybe it was just the words that man said piled onto her stress that caused these lingering thoughts. His words were like a punch in the gut at the time, which left a pit that would ache at the thought of failing again.

The celestial mage set her quill on top of her pile of blank papers and let out a deep sigh throwing her hands over her head stretching her arms in the process. The late nights finally starting to get to her made her drowsy as she stood up from her desk and turned out the light before kicking off her slippers and falling into her bed. She pulled the sheets over her and turned to her side. She had been staying up late like this for the past week, working hard on the novel which had later on failed to get published. She settled into the darkness and closed her eyes before she could let any tears run down her cheeks. She wasn't going to cry over something like this. Not this time.

* * *

"Luuuuuuce..."

She could hear the voice softly coming from behind her.

"Lucyyyy"

It was getting louder. Lucy moaned as sunlight started to pierce her eyelids. She rolled onto her back and pulled her blankets to her face trying to shield her eyes from the harsh rays but something prevented her from fully pulling it to her face. Her hands let go of the blanket and moved to her face trying. She rubbed her eyes and looked up to see a blurry face with pink hair hovering above her. She didn't even need to wait for her eyes to adjust to know it was Natsu.

"What Natsu...?" the blonde mumbled as her eyes settled onto his now clear face.

"You said you were gonna meet us at the guild this morning so we could pick a job." Natsu had a slight smile as he usually does as he stood upright and took a couple steps back from her bed. As Lucy sat up she noticed a certain blue exceed in her lap. She could have sworn she locked the doors but sighed when she felt a breeze come through her now open window.

"Sorry, I guess I overslept," Lucy yawned standing up from her bed and heading towards her closet. "I'll walk with you back to the guild, just give me a minute to wake up."

Natsu nodded in response and sat on her bed. She skimmed through her closet grabbing a new outfit and went into the bathroom to freshen up. She felt half dead trying to wash her face and brush her teeth but managed to put on her usual cheery attitude as she exited the bathroom.

"Alright, let's go!"

* * *

_Later on while at the guild_

"Wait, are you sure you don't have writer's block or something?" Levy questioned. Lucy had sat down with her so she could possibly find advice from the bookworm. After giving a brief description of her situation, Levy got to thinking.

"No, I just don't know what to write about." Lucy answered firmly as she bit her cheek. She glanced the other way towards where Natsu was now picking a fight with Gray but quickly evaded when he glanced back.

"Well, I'm more of a reader rather than a writer but a lot of authors I read tend to write about their own life." Levy suggested recapturing Lucy's attention.

"You mean like an autobiography?" Lucy didn't like the idea of writing about herself considering there were many things she'd rather not publicly announce through a book.

"No, more like, you write about the interesting things that have happened since you've joined Fairy Tail and use people in your life as characters in the story. There are plenty of good characters in the guild and you've been on many jobs that you can definitely write about!" Levy chimed with her idea. Lucy let the thought sink in. She figured as long as she didn't write anything bad about her guildmates, if they read it they wouldn't be mad at her and many interesting things _have_ happened.

"I guess it can't hurt to try." Lucy hesitated. It was a good idea, great even, but she couldn't help but worry over the _what if_s.

* * *

**What did you think of the first chapter? I know it doesn't seem like much Nalu going on right now but it's definitely coming. This is my first time writing a Nalu fanfic and IM SO PUMPED! Chapter 2 is coming out soon (probably tomorrow) (~_~;) I need Pocky...**


	2. Chapter 2

Lucy returned home after a long day from doing a job. Luckily the sun was still up so she had plenty of time to start writing. She went into her closet and changed into some comfortable clothes then sat at her desk and picked up her quill. The celestial mage had decided to start from the beginning. The VERY beginning. Back when she first met Natsu in Hargeon, which was more than a year ago, or 8 years because of what happened with the Fairy Sphere. _'To think that if I hadn't met him back then I wouldn't be here now...'_ Lucy thought to herself. She decided to make him the dedication of her novel. Turning over a blank sheet of paper she began writing on the next piece.

_'Dedicated to Natsu Dragneel for being the start of all my adventures'_

She smiled as she reread the sentence a couple times over. _'I've known him for more than a year now...' _The smile on her face grew wider until she let out a slight giggle. _'Snap out of it, Lucy! Stay focused!'_ She forced her quill to the next sheet and wrote _Chapter 1_ at the top. No more distractions, she had to get to work. And so, she began her new novel.

* * *

Lucy jerked awake nearly toppling the chair she was sitting in and gave herself a mini heart attack trying to restore the chairs balance. Once the chair made solid ground she let out a sigh of relief. Looking at her pages she realized she must have gotten a lot done before falling asleep. She stood from her desk still half asleep and turned off her light. She fell into the bed and crawled under the warm blankets. The other half of her that was awake slowly followed the other and she fell asleep again. For some reason the blankets were unusually warm.

She woke up not even an hour later from tossing and turning so much under the heat. Rolling over onto her side she saw two large eyes staring back at her. She couldn't move, like she was paralyzed. It took her a moment to recognize who it was and she moved freely again, ripping off the covers and jumping out of the bed.

"N-Natsu?! Why are you in my bed?!" Lucy screamed. She continued yelling at him as he mumbled under his breath that he must have fallen asleep. He groggily sat up and shifted his hand through his messy pink hair.

"It's too early to be yelling, Lucy." He moaned.

"I don't care! Don't go crawling into other people's beds while they're sleeping!" She continued.

"You crawled in with me." Natsu defended himself.

"W-What?" She lowered her tone.

"I came in while you were writing and fell asleep waiting for you to finish. You came into the bed while I was asleep." He explained.

"Okay," She could feel the heat rising to her cheeks, "Could you please move to the couch?" She asked trying to avoid eye contact. Natsu noticed her uncomfortable gaze the other direction and grabbed the blankets from her hands and used his other hand to grab her arm and drag her back down to the bed, throwing the covers over them. Lucy let out a little yelp the moment he pulled her down. Her heart was racing as her gaze met his again. He had a large grin on his face.

"If you're so uncomfortable sleeping with me," Natsu began as stuffed a pillow between them, "I'll put this here if it makes you feel any better." He laid back down and turned rolled over facing away from Lucy. It was too dark for him to notice Lucy's now bright red face as she rolled away from him as well and tucked her knees into her chest. It was one thing to sleep with him unknowingly, but knowing he was there just made her chest pound rapidly. _'This isn't happening...'_

Somehow she managed to fall asleep once more.

* * *

The next morning, Lucy woke to the sun shining through the windows and in her eyes. She mentally noted to get darker curtains so this would stop happening. Sitting up she noticed the pillow was still there, but not Natsu. _'Guess he already went to the guild'_ She thought to herself. It was a good thing he left. She didn't need any distractions while she was writing. She then noticed last night's absence of a certain blue exceed. Happy was almost always with Natsu, so it was weird that he wasn't there last night. Saving the thought for later, she immediately stood from the bed and went into the bathroom to freshen up. Running the water, she cupped her hands beneath it and splashed her face. Her hands reached to grab a towel and she dried off her face. She looked into the mirror recalling last nights events. Her heart sped at the thought and she rubbed the rest of her face trying to forget it ever happened.

Lucy walked out of the bathroom and straight to the kitchen where she grabbed a granola bar and tore off the wrapper as she sat down at her desk. She look a large bite out of the granola bar and picked up her quill to continue where she left off. She spent hours writing and rereading her work examining and errors and making sure that the work wasn't "amateur". By noon she had a stack of papers 3 times larger than the work she did the night before. _'Just a little bit more and I'll take a_ _break'_

About 2 hours later she finally took her break. Looking at her large pile she couldn't help but feel proud. She was already more than half way done and this was the quickest she's ever gotten this far. Her other novels had taken months to write but this one is going quickly. Maybe it was because she took so little time to write before that her other novels took so long. She stood from the chair and stretched out her arms over her head.

"I guess I'll go to the guild for a little while." She said looking out the window. It was a bit overcast, like it was going to rain. She ran to the guild not risking getting soaked.

As she walked into the guild she glanced around looking for either Happy or Natsu. From what she could tell, it was really calm there, so they probably were somewhere else. She walked to the bar and sat in one of the stools. While she was sitting, she felt others in the guild glancing at her.

"Hi, Lucy! How are you doing? I haven't seen you all morning!" Mira said in her usual cheery attitude.

"Oh hey Mira! I'm good, I've just been writing all morning. I had a hard time sleeping last night, so I'm still a bit tired." Lucy smiled trying to be as subtle about it as possible.

"Natsu isn't with you?" She asked handing Lucy a drink.

"I haven't seen him in awhile, who knows where he went." Lucy started to take sips from the beverage. "Mira, can I have my usual?"

"Sure! I'll be right back." Mira rounded the corner into the kitchen to ready Lucy's meal.

Lucy took small sips trying to ignore the people who kept looking at her. Seriously, what was wrong with them? People look at her every now and then but never this much. Lucy turned her head over her shoulder, shooting a glare at her fellow guild members who immediately looked away. She noticed Levy approaching the bar and turned to her once she sat down next to her.

"Hey Lucy," Levy said in a low tone. Lucy could feel everyone staring at her now instead of just randomly glancing. To make it short, she felt very uncomfortable with what Levy was about to say. "I know this is none of my business but... Everyone is wondering..." She leaned closer to her ear and whispered "How's Natsu in bed?"

Lucy's eyes widened as she started choking on her drink. "WHAT?!" She choked out of her coughing fit. After recomposed herself, she put her hand onto Levy's shoulder and took a deep breath.

"How did you know about that?" She whispered. Levy's eyes lit up.

"So you admit you did it with him!" Levy tried being as quiet as she could while also trying to contain her excitement.

"NO!" Lucy screamed a little too loudly. Realizing how loud she spoke, she toned down. "I just happened to fall asleep in the same bed as him not knowing he was there until the middle of the night. How did you find out anyway?" Levy backed away a little as Mira set the plate in front of Lucy.

"Happy came in here last night trying to convince Carla and Wendy to let him stay the night with them because you fell asleep with Natsu. He didn't want to intrude because, in his words, you liiiiike him." Levy pressed her fingers against her lips to half cover her grin. Mira looked over at Lucy who had a slight blush on her angered face.

"So now you know!" Mira added.

As if on cue, Natsu and Happy burst through the guild hall doors. Lucy jumped out of her stool and started pushing them back outside. "We need to talk. Now." She said with a final shove before closing the doors behind her.

* * *

**Sorry, I posted this way later than I had originally planned. I wrote it yesterday but it accidentally got erased so I had to rewrite it. I'm going to be busy the next couple days, but I'll write the next chapter in my spare time. I'm going on vacation, so I'm going to bring my laptop in order to keep updates on this story. Give me some reviews! I finally put some Nalu in! I'll put up the next chapter as soon as I can. **


	3. Chapter 3

Lucy shoved the dragon slayer and exceed out the guild hall with much force practically digging her nails into Natsu's vest. She could feel the heat rising to her head out of anger and embarrassment. All she had wanted to do was write her novel and now a small mess had unraveled before her. She was stiff closing the doors and relaxed a bit as they firmly closed shut. Letting out a sigh, she then glared towards the two of them making them both flinch. Her face relaxed once again and she turned towards them, avoiding eye contact.

"S-So, Lucy what did you need to talk about?" Natsu stuttered unsure if she was angry or just being weird.

"Eh? Oh yea..." Lucy started remembering why she pushed them out there in the first place. "Um... I'm not sure if you've heard anything about it but... apparently there have been some rumors going around the guild all morning." She felt her face flush, this was harder than she thought it'd be. _Come on Lucy! You're a writer, how come I can't find the right words?_

"No, I didn't come to the guild until just now. Are the rumors anything good?" Natsu started to rise in excitement of these rumors. Oh how he hoped they were about Gray.

"Hey Natsu! Do you think they're spreading rumors about our secret stashes in the guild?!" Happy panicked.

"Shit! I hope not!" Natsu yelled putting his hands to his head.

"N-No!" Lucy recaptured their attention, "That's not it..." She felt flustered the moment they focused on her again. Natsu tilted his head waiting for her next words. She shuffled all the possible sentences she could use to explain, the words fumbling in her head. _Just spit it out!_ She mentally yelled at herself for hesitating so much. Taking in a deep breath she started to speak.

"They-" she was interrupted by a clap of thunder and the sky lighting up brightly with lightning. As she had remembered getting to the guild quickly so she could avoid the storm. A large gust of wind came surging through bringing large raindrops that felt like pebbles the moment they hit Lucy's skin. She brought her arm to her face trying to shield her eyes of any harm from the rain. She shuffled her feet back a bit trying to locate where she remembered the guild doors to be but then found herself being pulled by Natsu's strong arm around her waist. Her body was soon against his as he kicked the door open and guided her in with Happy dashing into the guild before the door was slammed shut.

Natsu let go of Lucy and glanced around the guild noticing all eyes on the three. He simply ignored them and turned his attention towards Lucy who was now stripping herself of her soaked vest.

"That came out of nowhere..." Lucy mumbled to herself as she draped the vest over an empty chair. These kinds of storms would come through at most twice a year and almost always around this time so it wasn't very unexpected that one had come through that day.

Natsu took a step toward her which regained her attention on him again. "What were you trying to say before?" He asked now standing directly in front of her.

"O-Oh yea.." she stuttered glancing around the guild and seeing the members' full attention on them. "I'll tell you later." She said as she backed away slowly then turned to walk to the bar. She could feel Natsu's gaze amongst the other guild members' stares as she reached the counter. Her hand reached behind and under the counter-top where she knew the towels were stored and grabbed three of the rough fabrics. A sigh escaped her lips as she walked back towards the pair, unfolding the cotton white towels.

"Here Happy." She said kneeling down and wrapping a towel around Happy. She rubbed the towel against his short blue fur making him giggle when she rubbed a ticklish spot. His fur puffed a bit but then went back to it's soft regular form. Lucy couldn't help but smile whenever he giggled and could barely contain herself when he puffed up. It was adorable, after all he was still a cat. She left the towel wrapped around Happy as she stood back up from the floor. She then wrapped a towel onto Natsu's hair and started to dry it.

"Uh-"

"Your hair is still spiky even when its wet." She commented as he simply stared down at her with a little pink tinted on his cheek. Lucy rubbed the towel through his rosy pink hair and she looked up to make eye contact with him. She froze for a second realizing her actions and quickly regretted them.

"U-Uh... uh..." she stuttered as she stood frozen, her face quickly heating up. _What are you doing?! Just let go of the towel!_ Her hands finally listened to her and slowly released the towel from her grip pulling them back towards her. She took a step back, shifting her gaze down a bit. "Uh, you can do that yourself..." Looking down at Happy, he had put his paws up to his mouth and was smirking. She knew what would come next.

"You li-"

"Say it and I'll lock you back outside" She threatened with a deadly glare. Her own towel wrapped around her neck, she dried herself.

"My, you shouldn't be so lovey-dovey in public." Mira said in her usual tone with a smile planted on her face.

"WE AREN'T LIKE THAT!" The both yelled in unison.

"Now now, no need to go yelling about it." Mira pawed the air. Natsu let out a slight growl before calming down again.

"Anyway, how long do you think the storm will take to pass?" Lucy asked annoyed as she continued drying her hair.

"Dunno, but they usually don't last too long." Natsu answered removing the towel from his head.

"Good, I need to get back home soon"

* * *

_5 hours later_

The guild had returned to it's normal murmur of people talking with the rumor mostly forgotten by it's members. Erza and Gray had even shown up after the mission they had taken a few days before. They had missed the bustling over the rumor but it's surprising that they hadn't heard it once by anyone. It had become an afterthought. All they could tell was that Lucy was more annoyed than usual.

"I thought you said these storms don't last long!" Lucy yelled as she slammed her hand onto the table in front of him.

"I said _usually_" Natsu recalled his words earlier. He thought back even sooner to when she had dried off his hair. His eyes couldn't help but catch her blush and he undoubtedly remembered her hand rubbing his head softly like she was petting it. _Has she always been so bashful?_ It was a lot different from her attitude now. She's usually a lot more aggressive when she's embarrassed. _Has she really changed that much in a year (8 years)?_

"Would you stop staring and start to actually listen?" She had apparently been talking while he was thinking.

"Huh..?" Natsu squinted his eyes, confused from not knowing what she had just said. She clenched her hand in a fist hard enough that her hand was pulsing.

"I said, I'll talk to you about the thing I didn't get to say later at my house." Her hand unclenched and she relaxed herself.

"Woah, you're actually inviting me over?!"

"It's better than you just randomly showing up." She started walking towards the door.

"Wait, you're leaving now?" Natsu stood from his seat.

"The rain's let up some and I wanna get back as soon as possible. I've already lost a lot of writing time." Lucy grabbed the handle.

"Why don't I just come over now then? It might get worse later!"

"Knowing you, you'd come over in any weather..." She sighed knowing with his weird personality, there could be a typhoon and he'd still get to her. She opened the door and started walking through the rain.

Natsu turned and grabbed his vest before heading back to the door. "Come on Happy!" He shouted to the blue exceed who came flying through the door with him.

"Aye!" And they ran to catch up with Lucy and go over to her apartment. They barely even noticed the rain anymore.

* * *

**Sorry this took FOREVER! I was on vacation for awhile and didn't get much writing time and on top of that I had volleyball try-outs all week once I got back (Made varsity woohoo!). Not to mention I'm also working on a mural in my new bedroom (Also, I moved too). Yea... I've been crazy busy and school starts in 2 days (NOOOO) The next chapter will be up a lot sooner than this one did. Eat. Sleep. Play. Draw. Write. Pocky.**


	4. Chapter 4

The rain gradually started to fall harder as Natsu, Happy, and Lucy all ran to her apartment. As they ran along the shimmering stone pathway with a thin layer of water coating it, the stones reflected the dark sky while the river was pelted violently with raindrops. The sky was still shaded, but had turned more grey than black, though the street lights were still shining making the darkness of the sky seem a few shades darker than it actually was. Lucy was running with Natsu not far behind her and Happy flying, which was a lot harder than he had originally thought it would be. She rounded the corner up the steps of her front door with a slight slip of her foot that was quickly recovered as she stepped through the doorway, Natsu and Happy shortly following after her. They walked up the stairs to her room where she threw off her vest and went straight for her closet. She grabbed some gray sweatpants and a white t-shirt before walking into the bathroom.

"I'm going to take a bath, do you guys want to take one too?" She asked politely as her partners instantly planted themselves on her couch.

"We can just take one together if you're gonna ask." Natsu said in his normal tone with his head rolled over against the back of the couch so she was in his view. Lucy nearly popped with the heat rising to her head at the thought.

"Don't say things like that so casually! I meant after I took one!" She shouted out of the doorway. Natsu took a moment to run his mind through his words, but realized why she had freaked a moment too late when she closed the door.

"Natsu..." Happy looked up at Natsu from his seat next to him on the couch. "Why don't you think before you speak?" He giggled.

"Shut up! I say the first thing that comes to my head," Natsu protested but ended up proving his friends' words correct.

* * *

Lucy exited the bathroom with a steam cloud following behind her as she rubbed her hair dry with a towel. She was now in her lounging clothes or "comfy clothes" that she would usually wear around the house on days when she felt lazy.

"That felt good," she said to herself as she hung up her previous outfit to dry. "Natsu, Happy, are you going to take a bath or no?" She looked over towards the couch where they had been sitting the whole time. Natsu was already dry! Happy too! They had probably used Natsu's fire magic while she was in the bath.

"No, we're good." Natsu sat up with a groan. He stood from the couch and took a few steps closer to her so they could meet face to face. "So what were you going to tell us?" He said with a laid back attitude. He walked around to her bed and sat down with Lucy's eyes following him. She was starting to panic as she remembered the reason he had come over. She glanced out her window. It looked like the storm hadn't gotten any better. Maybe even worse. She didn't want to have to stay in an awkward atmosphere like this without a way of escape. Lucy let out a deep sigh.

"So, I know you haven't heard the rumors yet that have been going through the guild all morning..." She started. Her heart started to pound as she became nervous again. "But what I want to know is, WHAT DID YOU TELL EVERYONE LAST NIGHT HAPPY?!" She shouted startling Happy with the sudden question. _That's what this is about?_ He thought to himself.

"I didn't tell the guild anything. I only talked to Wendy and Carla because you and Natsu had fallen asleep already and I was lonely." Happy explained, trying to leave out the details Lucy needed to hear from him. She gave him a sarcastic look, waiting for more. Natsu also noticed this and got curious as well. He looked directly at Happy a bit confused as to what had happened. "Um..." Happy had a bead of sweat dripping off his head. _Cats can sweat?_ Lucy wondered. "Does it really matter what I said?" Happy asked nervously.

"Of course it matters!" Lucy shouted starting to get a bit angry with him.

"Why does it matter...?" Happy was getting very nervous. Both of the people that were in topic then were there. Not only that it was ONLY them. Also, Lucy looked like she was about to burst any second. Happy didn't really like angry Lucy that much unless he was messing with her.

"It's because of the things you said last night that people think Natsu and I did dirty things and I just want to know what exactly you told them that put such naughty thoughts into their heads?!" Lucy blurted all at once without a single stutter or hesitation. Her face had turned completely red as she shouted it all out in one breath. It felt as if a heavy weight had just been lifted off her chest but quickly sank back down as they all stood silently staring at each other.

Lucy's heart started to pound rapidly, waiting for someone to speak up. Her face became flushed and Natsu was just…staring. It made her uncomfortable. She felt like running out of the room. Instead she stayed still waiting for a response.

"I'm sorry, Lucy." Happy spoke up. She turned her attention towards him. His head was lowered, but a slight grin upon his face could be seen. He released a little giggle.

"Don't laugh! This is embarrassing!" Lucy shouted at his unexpected reaction. She sneaked a glance at Natsu. In her mind she had expected him to question at least a little of the statement but now he was looking slightly towards the wall and towards the ground, a slight pink tinting his cheek.

_Is he… blushing? _

"Natsu, what's wrong? You're allowed to talk you know. It's not like I was the one who made this up." Lucy put her hands on her hips. Happy took this opportunity to slip away towards the window. He opened it a creak when a flash of lightning came close, scaring him into closing it again.

"YOU'RE TRYING TO LEAVE?!" Lucy noticed his failed escape attempt. Natsu and Lucy had turned their attention towards the exceed.

"No… I was just trying to… let in some air?" Happy said nervously knowing they could easily see through his lie. It was an uncomfortable situation he didn't want to be in the middle of. He had hoped he could get out and leave it to them to work it out.

Natsu had laid down onto Lucy's bed.

"Hey Luce, can we hang out here a little while longer." He rolled his head on her pillow so she was in his view. Lucy let out a deep sigh and made her way toward her writing desk.

"I'm going to write. You're free to stay until the storm blows past." Lucy said slightly annoyed with the little blue fur ball. She was close, very close, to finishing her story. There were very few pages left in her last chapter that she wanted to finish so she could look over her work again to get rid of all the errors. Her quill went to the page and she continued. Hopefully Natsu and Happy would be quiet enough to let her finish. _Who am I kidding, those two never stay quiet. _

**So what do you guys think so far? The main plot is coming soon so I put in some fluffy stuff these past couple chapters. Lucy is (finally) almost finished with her novel and Natsu simply didn't know how to react about the rumors floating around! Happy (trying to be a literal 'wing' man, ayyyyyy? Nobody?) didn't really want to be caught between the awkward tension. I admit, I've been a bit lazy in writing this, but the updates will start to some quicker now that all that hulabaloo beginning of the school year crap is over with.**


	5. Chapter 5

Lucy hadn't understood exactly what had just happened. She tried changing the subject off of the dumb rumor, but expected him to at least comment. He either had a really good selective memory or decided to ignore it all together. But never mind that, Lucy didn't need to think of such things at the moment. Instead she should be rejoicing! It was already the next morning and she had completed her novel!

"Haha! Yes, finally!" She held the sheets now bound together with a stretched string in both hands above and in front of her, admiring her hard-worked masterpiece. Her sleep-deprived body shook as she set down the papers again. She hadn't gotten a wink of sleep the night before, trying to write while Natsu and Happy ran amok in her apartment. The said boys were now passed out on her bed even though she had told them to leave after the storm blew past. She didn't care anymore, too tired to kick them out forcefully and in no way would they leave if she just told them to.

She stood from her desk dragged her feet towards the bed. Her body fell limply onto the empty sheets next to Natsu, her face slamming into the pillow beside his head. This was enough to wake Natsu a little. His vision was blurry, but he could see the blonde lying next to him, practically dead. Wait, she wasn't moving, was she really okay?

"Lucy?" Natsu said almost as a whisper, still trying to catch his voice that hadn't completely woken up yet. She didn't respond, though she couldn't hear him in the first place. Natsu was getting a bit scared. _Is she dead?!_ He started shaking her shoulder and continued until she stifled a mumble.

"Stop, it's annoying." He sighed starting to sit up and crossed his legs. He looked over at the desk and noticed the stack of paper, the sheets slightly fluttering from the breeze coming through the window he had opened earlier and her quill rested neatly on top of it.

"Did you finish?" He asked looking back over at Lucy. She rolled onto her side enough for him to see her nod before she fell back into the pillow. He knew if he kept talking, it would just get on her nerves more because Tired Lucy is also Cranky Lucy. Bored, he leaned backwards into the open window so his head would hang out. An upside down view of the neighboring buildings and river shown before him, twinkling in the sunlight. The storm had passed by nighttime but what Natsu really liked about storms were the smells after. If anything is wet, the fragrance is enhanced or it smells completely different. The cobblestone pathway, the wooden window-frames, the flowers, even the tiles on the roof. They all smelled amazing. It was too bad they weren't at the park earlier that morning, because usually around dawn after a stormy night, the grass is amazing and you can even smell the air. He couldn't really describe what air smelled like, but if he had to, he'd probably have to say it smelled fresh and cool. He never really understood what feeling cold was like, but he knew how it smelled.

Natsu let out a deep sigh, this was boring. Screw it he was waking her up. He pounced from his spot in efforts of shaking the bed to wake her up. Instead she just rolled onto her back letting out a soft moan showing she had completely fallen asleep. Happy flew across the room and landed on the edge of the bed, finally woken from his sleep.

"Ne Natsu, I'm hungry. Can we go get food?" Happy said tiredly as his stomach grumbled.

"One minute, Happy" Natsu crawled on top of Lucy, straddling her, and placed his hands over her shoulders. "LUCY, GET UP!" He shouted as he shook her by the shoulders successfully making her open her eyes.

"Unnng, Natsu leave me alo-WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING GET OFF OF ME-"

"Lucy, it's boring here." Natsu interrupted her, not caring what she had said. She grit her teeth together.

"Then leave."

"I wouldn't be waking you up if we were going to leave without you." Natsu put a bored look on his face, making his statement seem obvious.

"No, PLEASE let me sleep." Lucy could feel her pulse speeding up. She was too tired for this.

"Don't be a buzz kill. I thought you were going to get your story made into a book once you finished."

"I'll do it later." She just wanted him off of her at this point. Natsu removed his hands from her shoulders and placed them on either side of her head. He lowered his head so their faces were mere inches apart.

"Come on please?" He said in the same tone as before but adding a smile.

"E-Ehhhh, Uhhhh" Lucy's face heated up. Please back away just a little. "NO!" She shouted accidentally kneeing him in _that_ area as she tried pulling the sheets over her head. Natsu choked and fell over onto the floor in a ball.

"Please…Luce…" He stuttered as he trembled on the ground. Lucy, now noticing what she had done, looked over the side of the bed with a bead of sweat dripping down her forehead.

"Sorry Natsu… Uh, I guess I could come with you." She said nervously.

"IT TOOK THE GUILT OF ACCIDENTALLY KICKING HIM IN THE BALLS FOR YOU TO SAY YES?!" Happy shouted from the end of the bed. The blue cat glanced over at Natsu's crippled figure. He let out a deep sigh. "Let's go eat now." He said flying out the door not giving a second thought of helping Natsu up. Lucy grabbed her novel and didn't bother changing out of her clothes from the previous day before leaving. As she stepped out the door she remembered Natsu on the ground and quickly turned around and gave him a hand up.

"Come on, let's get going." She said lightly in a more cheery mood than before. Lucy had realized how excited she was to bring her novel to the publisher again. "I'm SO ready for this!"

* * *

_-Outside the publisher's office-_

"On second thought, maybe I should go over my work juts ONE more time." Lucy trailed off, turning away from the door and taking a couple steps in the other direction. She suddenly felt a jerk on her collar forcing her to turn back.

"No way are you gonna spend ANOTHER night working on this novel! Go in there and present that thing! I know you'll get it published." Natsu said reassuringly, adding a toothy grin as he released her.

She relaxed her shoulders and took a deep breath as she turned the knob on the front door and pushed it open. The familiar red and gold carpet led a path down the hall passing the front desk and leading to several different offices. There were multiple mirrors on the walls and a large bookshelf full of the books the store had published. Each book had a sign on it saying something like "Send copies to library" or "Release within next month". Lucy slowly walked passed them and glanced at the desk before receiving a quick shove by Natsu.

"Good luck!" Him and Happy both said in unison. They turned towards a set of chairs and quickly sat down, waiting for Lucy to go. She gave them another moment of staring nervously before she turned toward the desk and placed her book on the counter.

"Yes, how may I help you?" A young woman spoke from behind the desk with a fake smile planted on her face. She looked less like she was smiling and more like she was trying to keep in a loud yelp of pain. The young woman had curly brown hair tied up into a ponytail and droopy sad looking eyes that made her look concerned no matter her expression.

"Hi, I have a meeting with Mr. Crymph" Lucy said with a shaky voice trying to ignore the woman's pained expression. The woman typed on her lacrima-powered keyboard hologram and screen then pointed down the hallway toward the same room she had been in before the last time she tried publishing a novel.

"He should be in there waiting, you're late." The woman looked up at Lucy then back down towards the screen, continuing to type away on her keyboard. Lucy grabbed her book and nervously turned toward the same office and walked up to the door. She firmly knocked on the door before hearing a muffled "come in" from the other side. Mr. Crymph, a man of maybe 30 years old with jet black hair, glasses, a lean posture and wearing a grey vest and purple tie, glanced over toward the doorway from his own screen and put his full attention onto Lucy.

"It's you again!" He said cheerfully with a large smile, "I knew you'd be coming back to try again at some point but I never would have assumed you'd make another story so quickly!" Lucy let out a slight giggle, pawing the air with her hand.

"It was nothing, it became a lot easier because of the advice you gave me last time and I hope this one won't be as bad- no, I hope it's a lot better than the last one." She said taking a seat in front of his desk and handing the book to him. He handled the book with great care and flipped to the first page then started reading.

"You don't have to stay the whole time you know. I am a fast reader but reading a book can still take awhile." He said adjusting his glasses with two of his fingers on the side of the rim. Lucy sat calmly and looked back at him.

"No, I don't mind staying." She said placing her hands onto her lap. This was too important to her, if it meant staying there to earn some respect she would gladly wait a few hours. Unfortunately, that also meant Natsu and Happy would be waiting for a few hours too, even though they most likely would leave after the first hour.

* * *

-_Later-_

"Natsu! WAKE UP!" Lucy screamed forgetting where she was. Natsu groggily sat up from his sleeping position on the chairs making Happy roll off his lap, startling him awake as well.

"Oh, hey Lucy. How'd it go?" He said rubbing his eyes trying to make a clear view of her.

"He's not done yet, but he's mostly finished with the reading part. I just came in to see how you guys were doing because you've been out here awhile." She said taking the seat next to him. She rested her head back over the chair and stared at the ceiling. "I remember this being a lot less nerve racking and boring last time, what happened to that?" She looked over at Natsu without moving her head, her eyes started to droop a bit with fatigue. "Hey Natsu, what have you been doing this whole time other than sleeping? It's unlike you to sit quietly and do nothing so what else did you do?"

"Haha! I'm glad you asked! We asked the lady for some paper and we've been making paper planes with really awesome designs on them." He said pointing to the paper airplanes that were scattered about (and a few burnt) throughout the waiting area. Some were colored with flame patterns and others just randomly drawn on with stick figures and flowers and houses. The pinkette shimmered remembering all of the planes flying around. He had tried shooting some down with little fire bullets. It was like a shooting and aiming game.

Natsu turned back to Lucy to continue to speak but noticed she had completely fallen asleep in the chair. It made sense considering how exhausted she was earlier and she did stay up all night trying to finish what was being presented at the moment. She was definitely a lot less mean in her sleep, Natsu could say for sure. Lucy started to fall over into the chair next to her but Natsu caught her and rested her head against his shoulder. She'd probably complain about her back hurting from sleeping that way and that Natsu not doing anything to help her if he didn't bother. Natsu suddenly heard a door swung open, revealing Mr. Crymph for the first time to Natsu.

"So Lucy, I finished your story. I honestly really liked it a lot. It's definitely better than the other one you made." He began speaking but looked up to see the blonde hadn't heard him. He then looked over at Natsu and slowly approached him.

"Hello sir, is she a friend of yours?" Mr. Crymph asked pointing to the sleepy girl. Natsu gave a firm nod and crossed his arms, making sure he wasn't trying to pull anything. "Could you please tell her that I really enjoyed her story and it will be published within the next couple days? It was a lot better than the other story she made and I'm proud she improved in such little time. Sorry I can't tell this to her in person, I have to leave now or I'll miss the train. Thank you!" He smiled then left the office with a wave goodbye.

**Okay, I haven't updated in a month and that's sad. As I mentioned earlier I am very busy lately and my schedule's been getting worse. I've already started chapter 6 so it will be up sooner than a month (definitely) and maybe under a week. I went to NYC ComicCon last week (first time going to any con ever) and I literally only got Fairy Tail merch. I got like 9 posters, a Happy plushie, an FT necklace and I got a little dragon named Louie who has nothing to do with FT but I bought because he is adorable. Anyways, if I'm not too busy I'll post the next chapter in under a week. **


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